Cake flour

[aaronatthedoublef]

What do you all use for cake flour?

Bob's Red Mill in 3lb bags has disappeared! It's not in any stores near me (including Walmart) and I cannot find it on Bob's website or others.

I can find 25lb bags and may switch to that as I use a lot of cake flour but it would complicate storage.

Thanks

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[BakerAunt]

Aaron--Have you sent an inquiry to the BRM people? I have noticed that they seem to be cutting back on certain items. I cannot get dried cherries, dried chopped apple, dates, or long grain brown rice on the site anymore. I'm not baking many cakes these days that require cake flour, having lost my audience when I retired and moved away, but I liked how the BRM cake flour performs and would hate to see it discontinued.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, I have emailed the BRM folks but have not received a reply. I will let you all know if/when I do.

It's not discontinued it is just not available in 3lb bags. I use cake flour in my pizza dough (cake flour, WWW, flax meal, and sometimes chickpea flour). I probably use a pound a week just for pizza so a 25 pound bag is probably better for me economically if I can figure out how to break it down store it.

Of course if I'm buying big bags I can go to the restaurant supply and then I can buy the Queen if I want it! Not sure how big those bags are.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like it's just out of stock, that's not unusual this year because the winter wheat harvest isn't in yet, and most white wheat is a winter wheat. BRM's cake flour is made primarily from a soft white winter wheat.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks. I hope so.

[Mike Nolan]

Jet.com appears to have BRM cake flour in 3 pound bags in stock. You may have to order a lot of it to get free shipping though.

And it appears walmart.com has purasnow cake flour available in various quantities from a twin pack of 5 pound bags to a 50 pound bag.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I'm surprised Walmart won't sell through Jet.com.

[S_Wirth]

Walmart bought jet.com in 2016 for 3.3 billion to have a better chance of competing with amazon.com.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/wal-mart-to-by-jetcom-in-3-billion-deal.html

I bought for a long time from jet.com and loved their business. Walmart was flagging with logistics and warehousing issues and they knew jet.com had it down pat...it has been a huge success for Walmart.

[Mike Nolan]

I think walmart.com and jet.com are likely to remain somewhat independent channels, even though Walmart owns them both. I have noticed that the walmart.com back end seems to be getting better, probably by using some of the jet.com technology, but I think Amazon still has the edge.

I may have bought one or two things through jet.com, I have bought a few things through walmart.com, some delivered directly to home, others delivered to a nearby Walmart store.

[S_Wirth]

I order almost weekly from walmart.com since my husband's stroke last July. Prices are the same as in store and I don't have to get someone to watch him or to make the trip 25 mi. one way.

I get free 2-day shipping by FedEx for a $ 35.00 order. It has been a godsend for me. One of his friends has a lot of doctor appointments in Evansville, IN and he gets cold stuff, canned goods, bread and such for us really cheap at Aldi's.

I will likely always shop at walmart.com even when husband gets fully rehabilitated...it is just too much of a bargain to not use.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've heard from BRM and they are discontinuing their unbleached cake flour in all sizes.

I guess I can load up on 25lb bags while they last but will probably just switch to a different brand.

[Mike Nolan]

The only unbleached cake flour I've ever used was from King Arthur, and I wasn't all that impressed with it. I don't use much cake flour, but I'll stick with the bleached type.

[BakerAunt]

That's disappointing, Aaron.

Bob's Red Mill was sold by Bob to the employees about a year or so ago, and it is undergoing some changes. I suspect that is a reason some products are being dropped; another maybe that the business needs to change to survive and grow.

KAF went through this transition to employee owned, and I suspect it has had some additional transitions as it changes its business plan.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure how much of it is due to changes at Bob's (or KAF) and how much of it is changes in the food distribution industry and consumer preferences. KAF has to compete with Amazon and other web retailing giants, I suspect that impacts Bob's as well.

It's getting harder to find some products on the shelves, and there are some product on Bob's website that I've never seen in stores. Think about how often there's a thread here about where to find something. But there always seems to be room on the shelves at the grocery stores we shop at for another flavor of Oreos. :sigh: (The latest one is 'carrot cake', or at least that's what flavor the package says it is.)

[RiversideLen]

I've had that carrot cake flavor Oreo, stick with the original.

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